The Bear Facts
May 25, 2013
Good morning! I’m Morgan Frideres!
I’m Jake Hamilton!
And I’m Mark Fakler! Welcome to our last “Bear Facts” episode of the year. Thanks for joining us for the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
It’s no surprise to anyone that the Golden Bear girls golf team is headed back to state. The defending state champions easily won their regional final last Monday. Their team score of 357 was the best score from any 1-A regional site in the state. In addition to the team win, three Golden Bears—Alexa Capesius, Haley Froehlich, and Becca Richter—were among the top five at regionals and qualified for state individually.
The 1-A state golf meet will be next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 28 and 29, at the American Legion Golf Course in Marshalltown. Tee-off both days will be at 9am. The Bears will take on competitors from Grundy Center, New London, Valley of Elgin, HLV Victor, Pleasantville, Corning, and LeMars Gehlen. Good luck at state, Golden Bear golf!
State golf comes on the heels of the girls track team marking a great showing in their state meet. Erin Reedy finished eighth in both the 1500 and 3000-meter runs, while the 4x200 and 4x400 relays with Taylor Frideres, Aisha Miller, Chelsi Lanus, and Nicole Behr finished fourth and sixth respectively. On the boys side, Adam Hamilton ended up in second place statewide in the 110-meter high hurdles. Congratulations, track!
Next Wednesday the Golden Bear quiz bowl team leaves for their fourteenth trip to the National Academic Championships. This year the event is being held in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The Bears will be playing six games at nationals next Friday and Saturday, taking on teams from the Philadelphia and New York City areas, as well as from Colorado, Connecticut, and Michigan. As always Garrigan is one of the smallest schools entered at nationals, but they’re hoping to do their best.
Team members include senior Allison Frideres; juniors Levi Bernhard and Jake Hamilton; sophomores Tony Kollasch, Taylor Illg, Zach Kollasch, and Hannah Bernhard; and freshman Devin Degen. Accompanying the group are coach David Burrow, as well as science teacher Greg Ahlers and two parents.
In addition to the competition, the team will be seeing many different attractions in the Washington area. A highlight will be a visit to the new International Spy Museum, and they’ll also be treated to a private tour of the Pentagon, by special arrangement with a colonel who is a native of north central Iowa. Good luck at nationals, BGHS quiz bowl!
Quiz bowl isn’t the only group that’s traveling this summer. On June 4 Spanish teacher Linda Peterson will be taking a group of her students to sunny Spain. The Garrigan students making the trip include Dillon Walker, Noelle Vitzthum, Shawn Vaske, Kendra Roethler, Erin Reedy, and Lydia Reding; as well as Connor Langermann, Melanie Mergen, Samantha Kollasch, David Klein, Janet Kenyon, and Anna Hohmeister. Rounding out the group are Amelia Golwitzer, Makayla Foertsch, Vanessa Dodds, Sabrina Book, and Jamie Baumann.
The group will fly from Minneapolis to Dallas and on to Madrid, finally ending up in Santiago de Compostela, an ancient city in northwest Spain. They’ll zig-zag across northern Spain, visiting Burgos, Bilbao, and Pamplona, before finally ending up in Barcelona. Exchange student Santiago Schmitt will be joining the group before they return home June 13.
Again this year Garrigan was the first school in the area to finish our school year. Our seniors graduated two weeks ago, and we finished our last final exams this Thursday. Sometimes our friends from other schools wonder why we’re done with school when they’re still going. The answer is really pretty simple. Earlier in the year we had school when they didn’t. Every fall Garrigan is the first area school to begin, and there are several times during the year when other schools have in-service, but we’re in session with parish busing. That pays off at the end of the school year—when, even tacking on extra snow days—we’re still out by Memorial Day.
As our year ends we’re sad to say goodbye to five members of the Bishop Garrigan staff. Longtime Garrigan president Gene Meister announced his retirement earlier this year. Health teacher and HOSA advisor Jeanne Wunder will also be retiring this summer, after thirty years teaching through a special arrangement between Garrigan and Iowa Lakes.
We’ll also miss Janet Heupel, who has long been an administrative assistant in the office as well as the athletic secretary. Also leaving our staff are custodian Chuck McCabe and cafeteria assistant Betty Berte. This is a bigger turnover than we’ve had in many years at Garrigan, and we wish all these staff members well in their retirement.
On our Golden Bear calendar, the Solid Gold Marching Band plays in Algona’s Memorial Day festivities on Monday. Then Tuesday is the state girls golf meet in Marshalltown.
Quiz bowl leaves for nationals on Wednesday. Then on Saturday and Sunday there’s the CYO baseball and softball tournament in Carroll.
Highlights of the summer include the Dowling baseball tournament on June 8 and the Newman softball tournament June 15. The HOSA health occupations group has their national competition in Nashville June 26 – 29.
Softball playoffs start July 8, with baseball playoffs beginning July 16. August will bring camps and practices for fall sports, and before we know it the calendar will say Monday, August 19, and it will be time for school to start up again.
That’s wraps up our twenty-first season of the “Bear Facts”. We’d like to thank KLGA for airing our show all these years as well as the sponsors who make it possible. Thanks also to our longtime faculty sponsor David Burrow.
Finally, thanks to you for tuning in each Saturday. We’ll be taking the summer off, but we hope to be back next fall bringing you more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
